


On the Caretaking of Caretakers

by ximeria



Series: 2014 Fic-A-Week (all the XMFC AUs) [51]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Alternate Universe - Warehouse 13, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 15:15:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2816849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ximeria/pseuds/ximeria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik's been at the Warehouse for a few months now. For all the weird and wonderful he's see so far, he finally catches a glimpse of why the Warehouse chose to call out to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Caretaking of Caretakers

**Author's Note:**

> Have another round of the weird world of the Warehouse. I may eventually sit down and write an longer story with artifact hunts and more world building for this.

"Expansion coils?" Erik stared up at the high vaulted ceiling, feeling the whole Warehouse tremble.

"I'm sure you, of all people, have noticed the difference in the outside and the inside of the Warehouse," Charles explained as he tilted his head back, following Erik's gaze.

"Yeah, like the TARDIS," Erik replied, just the see the eyeroll this got him from Charles.

"The Warehouse expands as it needs the space," Charles explained. "The expansion coils normally do this seamlessly, but lately, they've been struggling."

"Maxed out?" Erik asked curiously, reaching out with his senses to touch the metal of the coils. They felt… strangely warm to his 'touch', pulsing with power. Another tremor ran through them, spreading from the coils, down through the columns and into the floor.

"More like…" Charles paused for a moment, obviously searching for the right words. "More like losing their flexibility, I guess you could say."

Erik found that a little vague, which in itself was a bit of a surprise. Since he'd joined the weird and wonderful that was the Warehouse two months earlier, he'd rarely found Charles Xavier grasping for words. In truth, it was sometimes hard to shut the man up - one word or explanation often too the next and the lectures tended to leave the recipient with a glazed over look in their eyes.

The lectures also tended to make Erik spend time fantasizing about shutting Charles up in entirely unprofessional ways. Thoughts he tended to keep to himself when he was around the man - not that Charles tended to trespass, but he was linked to the Warehouse and the Warehouse was all around them.

Erik touched one of the columns, feeling the metal core resonate. He looked over to see Charles watching him with a keen eye, although there was something else there. Something Erik couldn't quite describe. Turning his head back to look at the expansion coils, he reached for them with his gift and 'tapped' them, for the lack of a better word. A strange, but not unpleasant vibration, sang through his body from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

Charles blinked and focused on him. "What did you just do?" he asked, looking flushed and a little out of sorts.

Erik stared at his eyes - he wasn't entirely sure that they weren't bluer than normal. One never quite knew how the artifacts might influence one - mentally or physically. Erik had spent a day and a half trying to find a way to make Alex strop speaking in a dead language. Raven had spent half a day walking on the ceiling because for her, gravity had reversed. The latter should have known better than trying on sir Isaac Newton's Cravat.

Charles reached out and put a hand on his arm and Erik swore he could see arcs of electricity sparking off between hand and arm just before they touched. He sure felt it, his hair standing on end and his skin tingling. There was a strange echo from the coils as well, a strange sort of elasticity to them that hadn't been there a moment earlier.

Erik caught Charles when the man stumbled forward, a distant look to his eyes again, as if he was listening to something far off. He didn't even consider letting go of him again, just cupped his elbow with one hand and put the other hand on Charles' waist.

If asked, Erik wouldn't have been able to explain how they went from that moment, to him pressing and half lifting Charles off his feet, bracing him against the towering metal column. It happened one moment and then Charles' lips were on his, his legs around Erik's hips and his fingers gripping at Erik's shoulders.

Without giving it conscious thought, Erik reached into the column and fine strings of metal flowed from it, wrapping itself around them both, keeping them close together, crisscrossing over them until they were in an almost organic cocoon of liquid metal.

Erik wasn't really thinking all that much past the moment he felt Charles' lips parting for him, the messy kiss that followed. He didn't even startle at the touch of Charles' mind as it twined itself with his, their awareness of selves blurring at the borders where they touched, becoming something else altogether.

Digging his fingers into the fleshy curve of Charles' ass, Erik lost all sense of time. The rocking feel of their bodies as they both moved; Erik pushing against Charles as Charles arched against him.

Their mental connection was a strange psychedelic creature to Erik. He could tell what was Charles and what was him, more or less, but there was a third entity there. Something much older than the two of them. It didn't feel like a threat. If anything, it felt as if it was the most natural part of them both.

All the pent up fantasies that Erik had entertained since meeting Charles floated to the surface and he couldn't even find it in himself to be embarrassed as Charles acknowledged them with great enthusiasm. There was a rich joy in Charles when he touched some of them, while others drew a more primal appreciation from him.

Erik felt as if all he could focus on was Charles and how he felt against him, how he moved, or tried to at least. As he could feel Charles' climax rising, feeling his own body react - Erik could also feel the metal that had gone into making the Warehouse. He could feel the columns reaching for the vaulted ceiling, could feel every arch, every intersection, could feel all the expansion coils as they gave and took - almost like a great, fearsome beast breathing in and out.

Clinging to Charles, as Charles clung to him, Erik felt the rush of completion washing over him, felt the echo of the same from Charles. And the Warehouse, the Warehouse seemed to be pulsing with the same rhythm. It wasn't until he blinked and found he'd buried his face against Charles' neck that he realized that the metal surrounding them had melted back into the column and the tremors that had been a near constant thing for weeks now, had gone.

Charles was rubbing his fingers absentmindedly through Erik's hair, humming tunelessly under his breath. He'd slipped back down to stand on his own feet, but he was still letting the column take some of his weight.

"Rather unorthodox, but considering I've been waiting for you to make a move since you first got here," Charles mumbled, "I'm not complaining."

"Unorthodox?" Erik asked, still trying to catch his breath, helplessly acknowledging that he'd just come in his pants like a teenager with no self control. He wasn't entirely sure what Charles was talking about. Maybe the fact that strictly speaking Charles was his superior?

"Oh, no not that," Charles replied. "How are the expansion coils feeling to you now?" 

Erik was a little confused by the question, but nevertheless reached upward to get an idea of what Charles was talking about. He found the coils were slowly, but steadily, expanding without so much as a tremble.

"The Warehouse called to you for many reasons," Charles continued, still stroking his fingers through Erik's hair. "You're a mutant and you possess the ability to smooth its growing pains, so to speak. I'm its caretaker, my mood and well being tends to influence and be influenced by; the Warehouse. The Warehouse likes you, I like you - we compliment each other nicely."

Erik was at a loss for words.

"I wonder what will happen when we get into my bed and you and I actually manage to get naked together," Charles said with a snicker, his breath warm and damp against Erik's ear.

Shivering at the thought of exactly what Charles was suggesting, Erik couldn't quite help grinning widely. "Well, if the Warehouse benefits from me seeing to the wellbeing of its caretaker," Erik said, squeezing Charles' ass a little.

This was rewarded by Charles' pinching his side, but Erik didn't really care. He'd initially had his doubts about leaving Europe for Westchester, but right this very moment, he couldn't think of one valid doubt to voice.


End file.
